Ranking questions

When included in a screener, Express mission, or Diary mission, ranking questions ask scouts to compare a list of answer options to each other by placing them in order of preference. Scouts will assign some or all of the answer options a number, depending on whether you've asked them to rank all choices or defined a custom rank limit. In your question prompt, be sure to instruct scouts on what the numbers mean (e.g. Rank the following pizza toppings from best (1) to worst (6)).

• Creating a ranking question
• Customizing your ranking question
• Analyzing ranking question results
• Viewing ranking question responses in scout entries

Creating a ranking question

To create a ranking question, select "Ranking" from the question dropdown menu:

Once created, you can decide whether or not you’d like scouts to rank all of the answer options listed, or you can create a custom limit to allow scouts to rank only some of your answer options.

• When to use Rank All: Use Rank All when scouts have enough experience with all of your answer options to assign a thoughtful rating to each (e.g. Rank your favorite colors from most favorite (1) to least favorite (6)).
• When to use Custom Limit: Use Custom Limit when you’d like scouts to rank their top answer options (e.g. Rank your top three favorite pizza toppings from most favorite (1) to least favorite (3)).

Pro tip: Try to limit the number of rank choices to between 6 and 10 items. Asking scouts to rank too many items in relation to one another can be overwhelming, and in a long list of items, the middle rankings tend to be less strong or reliable.  

Customizing your ranking question

You can further customize your ranking question with the following options. 

“Randomize rank choices” to present rank choice answer options in a random order to scouts. 

“Include ‘Other’ Option” to allow scouts to fill in their own answer choice for ranking.

For Rank All questions, toggle on “Scouts can mark rank options as N/A” to allow scouts to mark any rank choice answer options that are not relevant or familiar to them as “not applicable.” (This option is not available for “Custom Limit” ranking questions.)

Analyzing Ranking Question Results

In the “Closed-Ended Responses” view, you can see a visualization of your ranking question data as a distribution chart or as a table. A score (based on average ranking) is calculated for each answer option, allowing you to quickly evaluate the most preferred answer option. 

(To access the “Closed-Ended Responses” view, use the “Entries” menu dropdown in the header, or click the bar chart icon in the top left corner of the Entries view.)

Overall Rank and Score

Overall rank is based on the score calculation. Score is a weighted average that is calculated as follows, where:

w = weight of ranked position
x = response count for answer choice

Weights are applied in reverse. In other words, the scout’s most preferred choice (ranked as #1) has the largest weight, and their least preferred choice (ranked in the last position) has a weight of 1. For example, if a ranking question had 5 possible rank assignments: 

• The #1 choice has a weight of 5
• The #2 choice has a weight 4
• The #3 choice has a weight of 3
• The #4 choice has a weight of 2
• The #5 choice has a weight of 1

If you choose to toggle on the “Scouts can mark rank options as N/A” option for a Rank All ranking question, any N/A responses will not factor into the average ranking. 

The overall rank is based on the weighted average score, meaning the answer choice with the highest score is “1” in the Overall column, second highest is “2”, etc.

Viewing Ranking Question Responses in Scout Entries

When viewing ranking question responses in individual scout entries or applications, the scout’s choices will be listed in order of assigned preference.